YDNA Walker Group 33

Group 33

Walker Group-33 is a solidly Scotch-Irish line of Walkers with hapologroups associated with western Scotland: R-P312/S116 > Z40481 > FGC84729 > ZZ37 > ZZ38 > L624/S389 > Z30600 > BY15423^[1] Almost all kits can be plausibly traced to three men who settled Cumberland, Pennsylvania in the mid 1700's. These three men are the "patriarchs" of this Walker line. According to Egle's Notes and Queries, an unreliable secondary source, these three men were brothers. Given the very close genetic distance between the descendants of these men, the close proximity of these men in Pennsylvania, their similar ages, and even similar names among their children, this claim is likely correct. In fact, the kits discovered so far match closely enough for a single common ancestor born in 1670. For the first few generations in North America, this line of Walkers was very conservative with the names of their children favoring Robert, Samuel, John, James, Abraham, William, Elizabeth, and Jane. This has led to widespread confusion between cousins in this family as well as completely unrelated Walker lines. Other child names typically came from the mother's family. The earliest ancestor for this group is supposed to be a Robert Walker, but it is notable that each of the three brothers above had a child named James, and almost every single man in the second generation also named a child James. It is plausible that the common ancestor for the YDNA group was a James, not a Robert Walker.

It is important to note that there are a small number of kits that do not fit cleanly into one tree. Kit 52745 is connected to the Wigton Walkers. Most Wigton Walkers match into the unrelated YDNA group 8 (See Wigton Walker YDNA). Kit 494697 (See John Walker) appears to be a separate importation from these three patriarchs, possibly an uncle or brother that stayed in Ireland for an extra generation before immigrating to Westmoreland, PA in 1785. Kits 153949, 550425, and 502587 share a mutation at DYS576, suggesting these three may be a descendant of John Walker.

1. William Walker of Hogan's Creek

2. James Walker of Newville

3. Robert Walker of Yellow Breeches

These are the Walker Group-33 kits posted on the FTDNA Walker surname project with their most earliest identified ancestor. Source material for this information can be accessed at the Walker FTDNA page.

Reconstructed Tree (As of 2020)

Reconstructed Tree of Walker YDNA Group-33. Black lines represent connections that can be supported by primary records alone, no DNA needed. Green lines represent situations where documents are lost or scarce, but proximity, time, and other surviving records combined with the DNA match suggest the connection is correct.

Notes

1. ↑ Information volunteered by Jacob Walker of kit 433084. Link to ytree.net